Below we’ve got a discussion of the starting pitching situation as well as the best teams to use for stacks for Friday night’s ten-game slate. We’ve also added a few quick tutorials for you to check out from our partners at RotoQL to help guide your research for today’s games. To learn more about RotoQL or to take a look at the packages they have to offer, please follow this link – it will truly help you become a better daily fantasy baseball player.

The weather outlook isn’t all that bad today, but be sure to check your sources for weather updates prior to lineup locks to make sure all of your players will get some play. Many times you can follow each team’s Twitter feed, but I think Kevin Roth really does a fine job and think you could give him a follow if you don’t already.

PITCHING PERSPECTIVE

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Marco Estrada comes in as RotoQL’s top value play for the night. He’ll cost you just $6,500 on DraftKings. The Blue Jays are a heavy favorite at home (-172 right now), but the high run total (9) may scare some folks away. Some of Texas’ left-handed bats could cause Estrada fits — lefties own a .325 wOBA against Estrada this season, but just a .306 over his career which is pretty neutral — but rostering him should allow you to get creative with the rest of your roster, including owning some of the Giants/Blue Jays bats along with another ace.

At just $8,100 you can have yourself a share of left-hander Jose Quintana. Quintana and the White Sox are a slight favorite (-142) at home against Boston with a run total of just 7.5. Weather looks good here, so feel free to run him out, but be sure to monitor closer to lock. Betts, Bogaerts and company could give Quintana some troubles, but the projection systems think he’s a top-five value tonight. I’ll just be considering the southpaw in tournaments.

In cash games, Jake Arrieta and Matt Harvey can be had. Both are pricey, but should be a staple in your lineups. They face the Pirates and Braves, respectively, each of which carries an implied run total of three runs on the night, the lowest of the slate. Pairing one of them with Estrada or Quintana should still allow you to get a couple of pricey bats into your lineup as long as you sprinkle value in between.

For tournaments, I think Aaron Nola will carry a low ownership in his bout with the Red Birds. On the other side, Michael Wacha also makes for a neat play tonight, but will likely be owned more than Wacha. This game has the lowest total on the slate, so getting a piece of either side seems doable if you’re entering multiple lineups.

STACK OPTIONS

When considering stack options, we’ll take a look at run totals for games, implied team totals, general success or lack thereof against the projected opposing pitcher and general success or lack thereof against the handedness of the projected opposing pitcher. The following stacks may be considered in either cash or tournaments.

Giants – San Francisco is my favorite stack to consider for tonight’s slate. They face off against right-hander Jon Moscot — who is not very good at throwing baseballs and is somewhat banged up — in Cincinnati’s Great American “Small” Park. The wind seems to be blowing out towards left-center (at the time of the writing) and the over/under on the game sits at nine total runs, with the Giants team implied total coming in at 5.4. Since the start of ‘15, the Giants have the league’s sixth-best wOBA against RHP (.324) and the second-best wRC+ at 110. Joe Panik, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt each posted a wOBA of .360 or better against righties since the start of last season. That’s a great place to start, if you can afford it.

Blue Jays – At the Rogers Centre facing lefty Martin Perez, the Blue Jays have an implied run total of 5.1 runs with an over/under of nine total runs for the game. You’ll be able to get your hands on a share of the total cheaper than the Giants, as well. Decent pivot, but think they’ll still be highly owned given their reasonable salaries. I hate taking the easy way out, but you can easily pick any of the 1-6 hitters (which should all be right-handed hitters) and stack them in different combinations, depending on the “plus ones” or other mini-stacks you decide to go with. If you want a lesser owned piece of this total for tournament, Nomar Mazara, Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland and Rougned Odor are all in great spots — you’ll just have to pick between the first baseman, or split the exposure between them.

Astros – Like the Blue Jays, the Astros have a permanent spot in the stack section of this article. Tonight they’ll get youngster Alex Meyer for the Twinkies at home with a run total of 8.5. Houston’s implied team total comes in a 4.7 according to our pals at RotoQL, so you’ll want to get some exposure here. Colby Rasmus (.257), Preston Tucker (.243) and Chris Carter (.237) have the highest ISO numbers on the team against right-handed hurlers, so each of them make sense as a singleton or in a stack. Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and George Springer also make sense as does Luis Valbuena. Use a variety of stack combinations to get access to different lineups/run totals.

Angels – An implied run total of 5.1 leads us to believe that Mike Trout should be able to continue his tear against right-handed pitching. He owns a team-best .294 ISO, .411 wOBA and 177 wRC+ since the start of ‘15. Start with Trout and Pujols and fill-in around them as needed.

Braves – Mini-stack option for tournaments, but think this may be more owned than some would think. Nick Markakis, Freddie Freeman and Adonis Garcia against Matt Harvey isn’t something most sane folks would do, but they do have the platoon advantage, good numbers against right-handed pitchers and make sense given some of Harvey’s recent perceived struggles.

PLAYER RANKINGS

DRAFTKINGS

CATCHER

1. Buster Posey – $4,700
2. Russell Martin – $3,600
3. J.T. Realmuto – $3,400
4. Yasmani Grandal – $2,900
5. Wellington Castillo – $3,700

FIRST BASE

1. Edwin Encarnacion – $3,800
2. Chris Davis – $4,700
3. Lucas Duda – $4,000
4. Brandon Belt – $4,800
5. Paul Goldschmidt – $5,200
6. Chris Carter/Eric Hosmer – $4,200

SECOND BASE

1. Joe Panik – $4,500
2. Rougned Odor – $3,700
3. Neil Walker – $4,000
4. Daniel Murphy – $4,200
5. Cesar Hernandez – $2,700
6. Ivan De Jesus, Jr. – $2,700

THIRD BASE

1. Josh Donaldson – $5,200
2. Alex Rodriguez – $4,000
3. Matt Carpenter – $3,900
4. Kris Bryant – $4,600
5. Kyle Seager – $3,500
6. Luis Valbuena – $3,700

SHORTSTOP

1. Jonathan Villar – $4,000
2. Troy Tulowitzki – $4,100
3. Xander Bogaerts – $3,900
4. Asdrubal Cabrera – $3,300
5. Alexei Ramirez – $3,100
6. Carlos Correa – $5,000

OUTFIELD

1. Yoenis Cespedes – $4,600
2. Mike Trout – $5,400
3. Bryce Harper – $5,100
4. Michael Conforto – $3,600
5. Jose Bautista – $4,200
6. Hunter Pence – $5,100
7. Dexter Fowler – $5,000
8. Carlos Gonzalez – $3,900
9. Curtis Granderson – $4,500
10. Colby Rasmus – $4,400
11. Brandon Guyer – $3,100
12. Jay Bruce – $3,800
13. Giancarlo Stanton – $5,300
14. Yasiel Puig – $3,900

STARTING PITCHER

1. Marco Estrada – $6,500
2. Jake Arrieta – $12,100
3. Matt Harvey – $10,300
4. Jose Quintana – $8,100
5. Michael Wacha – $9,000
6. Collin McHugh – $8,300
7. Matt Moore – $8,600

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